The Mentor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vol. 6, Num. 9, Serial No. 157, June

Sydney Philip NoeProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
58K words
Chapters
6

Tags

English Originals Art Appreciation Museum CollectionWestern ArtIllustrated GuideMagazine SelectionTraditional Aesthetics

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Mentor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vol. 6, Num. 9, Serial No. 157, JuneAuthor: Noe, Sydney P. (Sydney Philip), 1885-1969,Language: English, Class: ND: Fine Arts: Painting, Release Date: Mar 1, 2016

Editor's review

This is a June 1918 issue of The Mentor devoted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, written by Sydney P. Noe. A fine-arts publication, it is distributed free by Project Gutenberg. Its value lies in the way an early popular museum publication explained the Met's collecting history and ways of looking to ordinary readers. Unlike today's catalogues or academic papers, such articles are compact and aimed at a general audience, making them useful for understanding how American museums introduced art to the public in the early twentieth century. Read it not as an up-to-date guide to the collection but as a document in the history of art popularization: it offers basic knowledge about paintings and objects while conveying the tone and choices of art education in that era. Suitable for readers interested in museum history and art writing for general audiences, and as background reading before visiting the Met. It is best read alongside the museum's official materials, with attention to the difference between historical information and current displays.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Skim the subheadings first, then read closely the sections on painters or galleries you know.
  2. Read alongside the Met's official collection introductions, distinguishing historical accounts from today's displays.
  3. Treat the article as a sample of popular art writing and note how the author explains works to ordinary readers.
  4. Read one or two sections at a time, then retell the main points in your own words to reinforce them.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

What is this issue of the magazine mainly about? It is an issue of The Mentor devoted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, introducing the museum and its art collections to a general readership. It is popular art writing, useful for understanding how museums presented art to the public in the early twentieth century, not for checking current exhibition schedules.
Is the collection information in the article still accurate today? As a historical text, its descriptions of the collection and exhibition information reflect the early twentieth century and may have changed since. Read it as a document in the history of art popularization, and consult the museum's current official information for specific objects and displays.
Can I read it without a background in art? Yes. Such articles were written for general readers, and the language is relatively plain, with no specialist background required. Look up unfamiliar painters or terms as you go; the point is to appreciate how the museum introduced art.
Is it suitable as a guide before visiting the museum? It works as background reading but not as a visitor's guide. It helps you understand the museum's early popular narrative and part of its collecting history, but for actual routes, opening hours, and current exhibits you should check official channels.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Sydney Philip Noe Author · American · 1885–1969

Sydney Philip Noe (1885–1969) was an American numismatist who served for many years as curator and head of research at the American Numismatic Society. He devoted his career to the organization and study of coins, and during his time at the Society he was responsible for collection management and scholarly publication, contributing through his expertise to the accumulation of numismatic documentation in the United States. One of his works is held in this catalog: The Mentor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vol. 6, Num. 9, Serial No. 157, June, a popular piece on museums and art collecting written for a general readership and combining information with readability. Public information on the details of his life is limited, yet his curatorial and research career shows the bridge he built between American numismatic scholarship and public museum education.